Plot Synopsis

The story of Peter Pan has been filmed many times for both television and the cinema including musicals, a silent film from the 1920s and a number of television productions. However, the Walt Disney animated classic from 1953 is probably the best known. This movie has previously been released in Region 4 and this link will take you to our review of the original release. The original version was released here in 2002 and was the equivalent of the second release in Region 1, known there as the Special Edition. This release is called the 2 disc special edition here and is the equivalent of the Platinum Edition in Region 1. See the R4 vs R1 section for a detailed comparison. Here is a comparison of the original Region 4 release and this 2 disc special edition.

Original Region 4 release

New 2-disc special edition

Video

Very good quality transfer

Completely new restoration which is a significant improvement but changes the colour scheme quite significantly.

Audio

5.1 remix at 384 Kb/s. Very good but not great. Has a bonus Audio Descriptive Track

New 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theatre Mix. Excellent.

Extras

Decent selection. Has a Pirate Treasure Hunt game which has been dropped from new edition

Significantly improved selection including a deleted song, a lost song, 2 music videos, a read along version of the film, 3 new games, 3 new featurettes (one of which is excellent) and a Peter Pan virtual flight feature plus nearly everything which was on the other edition. See below for details

On balance, this new edition is a huge improvement and is definitely worth considering for fans of the film even if they have the previous edition.

In terms of the film itself, this is obviously a wonderful story about growing up and not wanting to. As I am sure you are aware it involves the story of a magical boy, Peter Pan who flies into the nursery of three children living in London early in the 1900s. He is accompanied by his friend, Tinkerbell who is a pixie. They have come to retrieve his shadow which he left there on a previous trip. The three children, Wendy, John & Michael believe in the stories they have heard about Peter Pan despite their father saying it is all rubbish. They agree to accompany Peter back to Neverland, a magical island where you never have to grow up. When they arrive they quickly find that there are other people living on the island besides the group of 'lost boys' who are trying to avoid growing up. Also on the island are a tribe of Indians, a ship full of pirates and some mermaids. The pirates are led by the fearsome Captain Hook who has had one hand replaced with a hook after Peter Pan cut it off and fed it to a crocodile. The crocodile wants to eat the rest of Captain Hook and follows him constantly. Luckily for Captain Hook, the crocodile has swallowed an alarm clock so it is easy to tell if he is coming. The children quickly become embroiled in island politics and get themselves into deep trouble, both with the pirates and the Indians.

This is a wonderful children's adventure with a unique theme as it addresses the issue which faces all children at some point or another, whether or not it's time to grow up. Due mostly to its age, being made in the early 1950s (a production process which actually started in the late 1930s), there are some plot points and songs which are not really completely politically correct in this day and age both in terms of race relations and sexism, however, if you are not overly sensitive you can see past these minor issues. The only other thing I noted was that the story moved along very quickly and could have done with a little more running time to provide a little more explanation.

Regardless, this is a classic animated film from Walt Disney's golden period which has been re-released in a greatly improved edition..

Transfer Quality

Video

The video quality is excellent.

The feature is presented in a 1.31:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is close to the original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. I was quite surprised when I measured this up at 1.31:1 so I checked it again. I can only guess that this is based on a desire to slightly overscan for a 4x3 display.

The picture was very sharp and clear significantly better than footage included in the extras from the previous edition. I am not able to directly compare to the previous edition, however, based on the review I feel sure it is quite a big improvement. There was no evidence of low level noise.

The colour was also excellent surprisingly vibrant for a film of this age but not to the point that it seems badly doctored. I would assume that some colour grading was done for this release however I do not feel it has been overdone. The restoration work was done by the same group who did the recent James Bond Ultimate Editions, I believe. Since I published this review a reader has sent me a link to an article on the difference in colour between the previous version and this, which is actually quite marked. You can read that article here.

There are no artefacts.

There are subtitles in English and English for the Hard of Hearing along with French, Dutch and Hindi. There are also subtitles for the director's commentary in French & Dutch. The English subtitles were excellent.

There is no layer change during the movie.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness

Shadow Detail

Colour

Grain/Pixelization

Film-To-Video Artefacts

Film Artefacts

Overall

Audio

The audio quality is very good.

This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s, the same in French and a Dutch 5.1 track encoded at 384 Kb/s. Purists will be disappointed by the lack of the original mono soundtrack which is available on the equivalent Region 1 edition.This edition contains a new mix of the 5.1 soundtrack and would seem to be an improvement over the previous edition.

Dialogue was excellent, very clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

The wonderful music and songs sound very good indeed on this transfer.

The surround speakers are used for some mild surround effects and for the music but are not overly obvious.

The subwoofer was not used in any overtly noticeable way.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue

Audio Sync

Clicks/Pops/Dropouts

Surround Channel Use

Subwoofer

Overall

Extras

Despite there being a large selection of extras here, I felt that in comparison to other Disney reissues this one seemed a little lacking. I would have liked to have seen some detail about the animation techniques like there was on Bambi and some coverage of the restoration process would have been very interesting. Still a high quality set of extras though. I will cover the new extras in detail and just note what else is included. New extras are labelled **NEW**.

Menu

The menu included an intro, motion, music and is generally very well designed. The cursor uses a pixie dust motif.

Disc 1

Fast Play Option **NEW**

Essentially this just means that if you insert the disc and select a language, the movie will start automatically. It pauses at one point to let you escape to the main menu should you so desire.

'Tinkerbell' Sneak Peak (2:24) **NEW**

Basically a trailer for an upcoming movie focused on Tinkerbell. Ka-ching!

Disney Song Selection **NEW**

This allows songs from the movie to be played separately with the notable exception of the dodgy non-PC one about the Indians.

Peter's Playful Prank

This is a read along story which is a carry over from the previous edition. It's quite short, but my boys seemed to like it.

Commentary - Roy Disney and many others

This commentary is the same as the one on the previous journey and is essentially a compilation of interview material from various cast & crew, historians, film critics and others. Some interesting information but not very scene specific. Its a 96 Kb/s mono track this time around.

Disc 2

Music & More

Deleted Song 'The Pirate Song' (2:22)**NEW**

This is a scene and song deleted from the film which is shown here using rough drawings from storyboards. Interesting but nothing special.

Lost Song 'Never Land' (5:54)**NEW**

A short featurette about a half completed song found in the archives which has recently been completed by one of the original songwriters and recorded by Paige O'Hara (the voice of Belle from Beauty & The Beast). The featurette is followed by the music video.

Music Video - 'Never Land' by Paige O'Hara (3:15)**NEW**

This is really just a way to play the music video without watching the featurette. I cannot see why you would need to see it more than once anyway.

Music Video - 'The Second Star to the Right' by T-Squad (2:56)

A modernised hip-hop style version of the song from the film featuring a very annoying kids group. Back to the dark cavern from which you came!

Games & Activities

Read Along - Peter Pan (77:32)**NEW**

This is slightly odd but might be useful. It is the entire film with read-a-long/sing-a-long captions burnt into the picture. They highlight a word at a time like karaoke lyrics. Each caption is surrounded by a frame and includes an icon to indicate who is speaking. The running time is longer as this is an NTSC to PAL conversion.

Games**NEW**

There are three games included which can be played as one thing or separately. They are

Smee's Sudoku Challenge - Not sure how Sudoku and Peter Pan go together but anyway, this is not a bad game. You can start simple with four by four squares using pictures and then progress to numbers and then to nine by nine squares of varying difficulty.

Tarrrget Practice - This one is also quite decent although not really well explained. Basically you have to throw things at the pirates but not at Mermaids, Peter Pan or the Lost Boys. To do so, you need to use the directional arrows, which is helpfully not mentioned in the instructions.

Tink's Fantasy Flight - This one is rubbish, it just doesn't work and is not well explained. You seem to have to control Tinkerbell's flight but if you press any button you fail. If you do nothing, you win. I thought it might just be me being dense but other reviews I have read mention the same problem.

Backstage Disney

You Can Fly : The Making of Peter Pan (10:36)

This 1997 featurette is a carry over from the previous edition. It goes through the process of production, why it took so long and how they used live models for the characters. There are some interesting interviews segments but overall its a very high level look.

Censorship

There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view
non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually
also NTSC compatible.

This release is very similar to the Region 1 Platinum Edition.This Region 4 version (when compared to Region 1) misses out on;

Original restored mono soundtrack

Spanish 5.1 soundtrack

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

Dutch 5.1 soundtrack

Region 1 is slightly better due to the inclusion of the original mono soundtrack although most buyers won't be too concerned.